446 research outputs found
Multidisciplinary perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and the law
This open access book presents an interdisciplinary, multi-authored, edited collection of chapters on Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) and the Law. AI technology has come to play a central role in the modern data economy. Through a combination of increased computing power, the growing availability of data and the advancement of algorithms, AI has now become an umbrella term for some of the most transformational technological breakthroughs of this age. The importance of AI stems from both the opportunities that it offers and the challenges that it entails. While AI applications hold the promise of economic growth and efficiency gains, they also create significant risks and uncertainty. The potential and perils of AI have thus come to dominate modern discussions of technology and ethics – and although AI was initially allowed to largely develop without guidelines or rules, few would deny that the law is set to play a fundamental role in shaping the future of AI. As the debate over AI is far from over, the need for rigorous analysis has never been greater. This book thus brings together contributors from different fields and backgrounds to explore how the law might provide answers to some of the most pressing questions raised by AI. An outcome of the Católica Research Centre for the Future of Law and its interdisciplinary working group on Law and Artificial Intelligence, it includes contributions by leading scholars in the fields of technology, ethics and the law.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volume
LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volum
Learning in Repeated Multi-Unit Pay-As-Bid Auctions
Motivated by Carbon Emissions Trading Schemes, Treasury Auctions, and
Procurement Auctions, which all involve the auctioning of homogeneous multiple
units, we consider the problem of learning how to bid in repeated multi-unit
pay-as-bid auctions. In each of these auctions, a large number of (identical)
items are to be allocated to the largest submitted bids, where the price of
each of the winning bids is equal to the bid itself. The problem of learning
how to bid in pay-as-bid auctions is challenging due to the combinatorial
nature of the action space. We overcome this challenge by focusing on the
offline setting, where the bidder optimizes their vector of bids while only
having access to the past submitted bids by other bidders. We show that the
optimal solution to the offline problem can be obtained using a polynomial time
dynamic programming (DP) scheme. We leverage the structure of the DP scheme to
design online learning algorithms with polynomial time and space complexity
under full information and bandit feedback settings. We achieve an upper bound
on regret of and respectively, where is the number of units demanded by the
bidder, is the total number of auctions, and is the size of
the discretized bid space. We accompany these results with a regret lower
bound, which match the linear dependency in . Our numerical results suggest
that when all agents behave according to our proposed no regret learning
algorithms, the resulting market dynamics mainly converge to a welfare
maximizing equilibrium where bidders submit uniform bids. Lastly, our
experiments demonstrate that the pay-as-bid auction consistently generates
significantly higher revenue compared to its popular alternative, the uniform
price auction.Comment: 51 pages, 12 Figure
Characterizations of Network Auctions and Generalizations of VCG
With the growth of networks, promoting products through social networks has
become an important problem. For auctions in social networks, items are needed
to be sold to agents in a network, where each agent can bid and also diffuse
the sale information to her neighbors. Thus, the agents' social relations are
intervened with their bids in the auctions. In network auctions, the classical
VCG mechanism fails to retain key properties. In order to better understand
network auctions, in this paper, we characterize network auctions for the
single-unit setting with respect to weak budget balance, individual
rationality, incentive compatibility, efficiency, and other properties. For
example, we present sufficient conditions for mechanisms to be efficient and
(weakly) incentive compatible. With the help of these properties and new
concepts such as rewards, participation rewards, and so on, we show how to
design efficient mechanisms to satisfy incentive compatibility as much as
possible, and incentive compatibility mechanisms to maximize the revenue. Our
results provide insights into understanding auctions in social networks.Comment: To appear in ECAI 202
Undetectable Selfish Mining
Seminal work of Eyal and Sirer (2014) establishes that a strategic Bitcoin
miner may strictly profit by deviating from the intended Bitcoin protocol,
using a strategy now termed *selfish mining*. More specifically, any miner with
of the total hashrate can earn bitcoin at a faster rate by selfish
mining than by following the intended protocol (depending on network
conditions, a lower fraction of hashrate may also suffice).
One convincing critique of selfish mining in practice is that the presence of
a selfish miner is *statistically detectable*: the pattern of orphaned blocks
created by the presence of a selfish miner cannot be explained by natural
network delays. Therefore, if an attacker chooses to selfish mine, users can
detect this, and this may (significantly) negatively impact the value of BTC.
So while the attacker may get slightly more bitcoin by selfish mining, these
bitcoin may be worth significantly less USD.
We develop a selfish mining variant that is provably *statistically
undetectable*: the pattern of orphaned blocks is statistically identical to a
world with only honest miners but higher network delay. Specifically, we
consider a stylized model where honest miners with network delay produce
orphaned blocks at each height independently with probability . We
propose a selfish mining strategy that instead produces orphaned blocks at each
height independently with probability . We further show that
our strategy is strictly profitable for attackers with of the
total hashrate (and this holds for all natural orphan rates ).Comment: 44 page
Law and technology through the lens of autopoiesis:An analytical framework for dealing with regulatory disconnection illustrated through the case of the GDPR
English: This dissertation is about the gap between law and technology – the idea that technology develops at a faster pace than law is able to adapt. New technologies (sometimes) bring the current regulatory regime under pressure, or may even lead to a mismatch whereby the regulatory regime might need to be adapted. Such mismatches between assumptions embedded in the law and the new (sociotechnical) context are referred to in literature as regulatory disconnection, and the consequences thereof affect how the regulatory regime is supposed to work. A holistic and systematic approach to identifying regulatory disconnection is currently lacking. While a few approaches can be identified for addressing regulatory disconnection, there is currently little guidance on how to select the most suitable one in a given situation. Such guidance is important because adopting one manner of re-connection when another would have been necessary, might leave things in an even worse state. The aim of this project is to make a next step in the direction of developing a general theory of law and technology, by addressing the following research question: How can the theory of autopoiesis further our understanding of the interaction between law and technology, and what would a new, autopoiesis-inspired analytical framework for dealing with regulatory disconnection contribute to this understanding?This project brings together insights from the field of law and technology, regulation theory, and legal theory, combining elements of methodologies such as critical literature review, doctrinal method and discourse analysis. It draws inspiration from the theory of autopoiesis in law and develops a ‘ready-to-use’ analytical framework for the identification and addressing regulatory disconnection. Essentially, the theory of autopoiesis proposes that the world is composed of different (self-producing) systems. These systems can only view the world through their internal mechanisms that function as a filter. Because of this, each system develops its own world-view, or its model of reality of what other systems look like. The concept of model of reality becomes central to the three-phase analytical framework, in which the user is supported by guiding questions. Because it is developed as ‘ready-to-use’, actors such as regulators, judges and Advocate Generals, academics, lawyers, or NGOs that play a role in identifying and addressing regulatory disconnection can use the framework without a thorough understanding of the theory underlying it. The framework provides tools that support the users in conducting a systematic analysis of mismatches between law and the sociotechnical landscape, hence informing decisions regarding the right manner of re-connection. To illustrate its usefulness, the developed analytical framework is applied to the illustrative case of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), more specifically on the concept of ‘controller’, and finds a regulatory disconnection within this legislative instrument. The extent of the disconnection is in such a manner that addressing it through interpretation would not be suitable, and regulatory effort should be dedicated towards re-connection.This research concludes that that the theory of autopoiesis provides a different, yet compatible perspective to the interaction between law and technology, thereby adding an additional explanatory layer to the state of the art in literature. The autopoiesis-inspired analytical framework provides a ‘ready-to-use’ integrated and systematic approach for identifying and addressing regulatory disconnection from a substantive perspective, which strengthens the current approaches of dealing with the difference in pace between law and technology. In addition, the analytical framework also has the potential to facilitate interdisciplinary research, whose implementation is currently both a desire as well as a challenge in (legal) academia. Furthermore, the tools developed could also be used in other contexts, such as drawing inspiration from one legal domain to address issues in another. The full potential of this framework should be further investigated and tested. Dutch:Dit proefschrift gaat over de kloof tussen recht en technologie - de idee dat technologie zich sneller ontwikkelt dan het recht zich kan aanpassen. Nieuwe technologieën zetten het bestaande wettelijk regime (soms) onder druk, of kunnen zelfs leiden tot een mismatch waardoor de wet moet worden aangepast. Dergelijke mismatches tussen aannames die in de wet verankerd zijn en de nieuwe (sociotechnische) context worden in de wetenschappelijke literatuur regulatory disconnection genoemd, en de gevolgen daarvan hebben invloed op de manier waarop het wettelijke regime verondersteld wordt te werken. Op dit moment ontbreekt een holistische en systematische aanpak voor het identificeren van regulatory disconnection. Hoewel er enkele wetenschappelijke benaderingen voor de aanpak van de problematiek kunnen worden geïdentificeerd, ontbreekt het momenteel aan voldoende houvast om de meest geschikte benadering in een specifieke situatie te selecteren. Een voldoende houvast is belangrijk omdat de specifieke aanpak voor het adresseren van een regulatory disconnection veelal nauw komt en de keuze voor een sub-optimale aanpak de problematiek kan verergeren. Het doel van dit onderzoek is het zetten van een volgende stap in de ontwikkeling van een algemene theorie voor recht en technologie. Dat doet het onderzoek meer concreet via het beantwoorden van de volgende onderzoeksvraag: Hoe kan de theorie van autopoëse ons begrip van de interactie tussen recht en technologie bevorderen, en welke bijdrage kan een nieuw, op autopoëse geïnspireerd analytisch kader voor de omgang met regulatory disconnection, leveren aan dit begrip?Dit project brengt inzichten samen op het gebied van recht en technologie, theorie van regulering en rechtstheorie, en combineert elementen van methodologieën zoals kritisch literatuuronderzoek, doctrinair onderzoek en discoursanalyse. Het onderzoek ontleent inspiratie uit de theorie van autopoëse in het recht en ontwikkelt een 'gebruiksklaar' analytisch kader voor de identificatie en aanpak van regulatory disconnection. In de kern is de theorie van autopoëse gebaseerd op de aanname dat de wereld is samengesteld uit verschillende (zelfproducerende) systemen. Deze systemen kunnen de wereld alleen waarnemen door hun interne mechanismen die als een filter fungeren. Hierdoor ontwikkelt elk systeem zijn eigen wereldbeeld, oftewel een model van de werkelijkheid en daarmee hoe andere systemen eruit zien. De benadering via dergelijke modellen van de werkelijkheid staat centraal in een analytisch kader dat bestaat uit drie stappen waarbij de gebruiker deze stappen doorloopt aan de hand van een aantal leidende vragen. Omdat het kader als het ware 'gebruiksklaar' is ontwikkeld, kunnen actoren wiens taak het is een mismatch tussen recht en technologie te identificeren en aan te pakken, waaronder de wetgever, rechters en advocaten-generaal, academici, advocaten of NGO's, het raamwerk gebruiken zonder een grondig begrip te moeten hebben van de theorie die eraan ten grondslag ligt. Het kader biedt met andere woorden een hulpmiddel dat gebruikers ondersteunt bij het uitvoeren van een systematische analyse van mismatches tussen aannames in het recht enerzijds en de nieuwe (sociotechnische) context anderzijds, waardoor beslissingen over de juiste manier voor het adresseren van de mismatch onderbouwd kunnen worden. Om de bruikbaarheid ervan te illustreren, wordt het ontwikkelde analytische kader toegepast op het wettelijk kader van de Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming (AVG), meer specifiek op het concept 'verwerkingsverantwoordelijke'. Het betreft hier bij uitstek een voorbeeld waarin de mismatch niet aangepakt kan worden middels interpretatie van bestaande bepalingen maar de inspanningen gericht moeten zijn op het vinden van een hernieuwde aansluiting tussen recht en de (sociotechnische) context.Dit onderzoek concludeert dat de theorie van autopoëse een ander, maar compatibel perspectief biedt op de interactie tussen recht en technologie, en daarmee een aanvullend verklarend mechanisme oplevert binnen het bestaande wetenschappelijke debat. Het op autopoëse geïnspireerde analytisch kader biedt een 'gebruiksklare', geïntegreerde en systematische benadering voor het identificeren en aanpakken van de mismatch tussen recht en technologie. Het doet dit uit een inhoudelijk perspectief en verrijkt daarmee de huidige benaderingen voor de omgang met verschillen in tempo van ontwikkeling tussen recht en technologie. Daarnaast heeft het ontwikkelde analytisch kader ook de potentie om interdisciplinair onderzoek te faciliteren, waarvan de implementatie momenteel zowel een wens als een uitdaging is in de (juridische) academische wereld. Bovendien kunnen de inzichten mogelijk ook hun waarde tonen buiten het terrein van recht en technologie door de toepassing ook in andere contexten uit te testen. Het volledige potentieel van dit kader zal kortom voorwerp van verder onderzoek moeten zijn
Shaping the unknown:New developments in technology assessment to align synthetic biology and society
Critical Heritage Studies and the Futures of Europe
Cultural and natural heritage are central to ‘Europe’ and ‘the European project’. They were bound up in the emergence of nation-states in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, where they were used to justify differences over which border conflicts were fought. Later, the idea of a ‘common European heritage’ provided a rationale for the development of the European Union. Now, the emergence of ‘new’ populist nationalisms shows how the imagined past continues to play a role in cultural and social governance, while a series of interlinked social and ecological crises are changing the ways that heritage operates. New discourses and ontologies are emerging to reconfigure heritage for the circumstances of the present and the uncertainties of the future.
Taking the current role of heritage in Europe as its starting point, Critical Heritage Studies and the Futures of Europe presents a number of case studies that explore key themes in this transformation. Contributors draw on a range of disciplinary perspectives to consider, variously, the role of heritage and museums in the migration and climate ‘emergencies’; approaches to urban heritage conservation and practices of curating cities; digital and digitised heritage; the use of heritage as a therapeutic resource; and critical approaches to heritage and its management. Taken together, the chapters explore the multiple ontologies through which cultural and natural heritage have actively intervened in redrawing the futures of Europe and the world
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